Domino's Pizza has been refused permission for a change of use of the Old Bank restaurant in Honor Oak Park. The Council's verdict agreed with the points made by campaigners against the plan: that it would be an unacceptable loss of a local amenity and create traffic and noise problems that would be to the detriment of the rest of the high street.

On balance, this is the right result and nothing to one's opinion about Domino's products. The handsome Old Bank should be given a chance to continue as a restaurant. Hopefully, a restaurateur will now come forward to take it on. In the mean time, Domino's have the financial and commercial clout to identify another location in the area, from where they will be able to operate their takeaway services. There must be an empty unit with planning permission for a takeaway facility somewhere in this part of South East London...

I am totally with Nick on this. If Domino's had been granted change of use, HOP would have lost an attractive restaurant site. There must be other options open to Domino's in the area and I sincerely hope they are successful in finding a suitable unit.@ Anon 13.56 - How is this snobbery?Nobody is suggesting Domino's shouldn't be allowed to set up shop locally. The objections have been based on us losing an attractive restaurant space locally. It will be much easier for Domino's to find a suitable unit for takeaway than it will for a someone looking for restaurant space in the area.Anon, your comment sounds chippy - pure and simple!

@Lou - I agree with you on most things and an established chain moving into the area does have its benefits.That said, I still think we will get a Domino's and I also believe the Old Bank will be snapped up by someone wanting to use it as a restaurant.I don't think this is a hollow victory for the Guardian reading corduroy brigade on this occasion. If the property stands empty for a long time then yes, perhaps Domino's should take it. If not, then we may have a new decent restaurant.

@Lou - what happen to your love of entrepreneurs? On the basis of what market intelligence do you say that a restaurant wouldn't work there? And did you read the stuff about the fact that a Domino's at that spot could damage the existing businesses located there? And the point that Domino's are more than capable of finding another nearby location? Do you disagree?

Lou i usually agree with you too, but think that this site is too prime a pitch for a Dominos. A bar or other restaurant would be a much better use. Cheap pizzas are catered for elsewhere on the parade.

Lou, I rarely agree with you and you're wrong in this case too. It's an excellent decision. There are loads of vacant shops that Dominos could open in - why needlessly destroy a precious resource.Honor Oak is on the up and a decent restaurant could do very well there.

Good news. There are umpteen suitable empty shops in Brockley, Crofton Park and Honor Oak. The old Bank premises has great potential. I wouldn't be surprised if an up and coming pub chain like Antic wanted to reopen it as a new bar. There must be a lot of unmet demand in the area.

Plenty of additional discussion at http://www.se23.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=4925&page=1

Domino's use of this site would have been a waste of good retail space at the most prime retail location in Honor Oak.

This would make an excellent pub or restaurant, or even a good old bank. But to use such a large unit purely to bake pizza for delivery would have been a terrible waste. This would be true if it were any pizza delivery business, even Fortnum and Mason's pizza delivery service.

There has even been rumour that a well known local pub chain might have been interested in this location.

If this really were purely about snobbery then I don't think we would have seen the council officers rejecting the application without even taking it to a planning committee. This proves how right the hundreds of objectors were in caring for a prime unit in their local area, the impact 7 motorcycles parked outside, and the impact on existing businesses, at least two of which would likely be empty within a few months of Dominos opening.

Despite this I would agree that it is not a complete victory until there is a viable business open in this great location.

@nick - to answer your 3 points:1) I don't doubt a restaurant could work there. But where is this restaurant going to come from? People are not queuing up to start businesses now. If there was a viable restaurant plan on the table - great, go for it. But there isn't.

2) I am sure Dominos could indeed find another spot. But it will, obviously, delay any opening and ensure that a few dozen staff spend another six months on benefits instead. This does not seem sensible.

3) As for 'ruining other businesses' - I have little respect for this argument. Good businesses will survive regardless, bad ones will close down. I do not believe we should assume a business is good because it's small and local or that it's bad because it's large and national. There are good small businesses and good bigs ones. And bad ones in both categories too. I believe good businesses thrive because they're good businesses and bad ones don't because they're not. Dominos opening nearby makes not a jot of difference.

(I am now awaiting complaints from owners of bad businesses who don't realise that their problems are caused by their businesses being bad).

A 'few dozen staff' Lou? For a takeaway pizza place? Bollocks.And the poor things on benefits too! This is desperate stuff, even for you. Admit it, you're wrong. Dominos will be up and running in a nearby premises soon and the Old Bank will be available for a more suitable business.

"But where is this restaurant going to come from?" tm2 has a new purchaser that is looking to do things better, brockley market shows there is a pent up demand for quality. Could go on but as you've used "brigade" in your post I can't be arsed.

@Lou - How can you be sure that Domino's HOP staff will be taken straight off the dole queue?I agree that good businesses survive because they are good businesses and I don't think a Domino's would have too much of an adverse affect on the parade.If Domino's were an eat-in restaurant as well as a take-away I'd have no objections to them opening in that site although I would personally love it to be a Pizza Express.

@Lou - How can you be sure that Domino's HOP staff will be taken straight off the dole queue?I agree that good businesses survive because they are good businesses and I don't think a Domino's would have too much of an adverse affect on the parade.If Domino's were an eat-in restaurant as well as a take-away I'd have no objections to them opening in that site although I would personally love it to be a Pizza Express.

"But where is this restaurant going to come from?" tm2 has a new purchaser that is looking to do things better, brockley market shows there is a pent up demand for quality. Could go on but as you've used "brigade" in your post I can't be arsed.

Lou, I usually disagree with you and partly disagree with you now. I agree that we shouldn't be turning down viable businesses because we don't like their products/blue signs. But I also think that letting a small scale takeaway business (few dozen staff? 6 in total I reckon) take over the prime retail spot would be a bad idea. A successful restaurant would bring greater economic benefits to the area and I don't think it's that unlikely. Near this location, la querce, babur and the HOT all prosper, why shouldn't this location do well too? Well done to the council for pressing for the best (not just quickest) solution.

Lou, just endlessly regurgitating dated cliches about the middle classes isn't actually an argument. Nobody is against a pizza place per se - just one in that premises. Read the comments above and try again.

Could this be the same Lou who brands deptford high street a dump? And all the thriving market traders as probably dodgy? Man of the people? No, just a boring old windbag with no interesting or constructive ideas (is there a windbag brigade?) we can and should be able to shape the high street we live near. The unfettered market does need reigning in occasionally, as a borderline fascist you should recognise that.

You also applauded brockley market, who do you think shops there? The very people you are currently slagging off. Constantly carping is dull.

"In the meantime we have turned down a perfectly viable business plan."

It wasn't a viable business plan, because it relied on a Use Class that the site didn't have. In the same way, my Super Casino dream for Homemade London is not a viable business plan.

If speed is of the essence, they shouldn't have buggered around with the wrong kind of site, they should have found a place with the relevant planning permission.

"And all because the corduroy brigade look down on those who order take away pizzas. Prefering, as they do, lattes, muffins and olive and sun dried tomato wraps."

No that was not one of the three reasons why the Council (not the public) rejected the application. I quite like Dominos pizzas (had them for the first time the other week) and would defend their right to sell doubghy, salty, cheesy junk food, but they should do so without us losing a restaurant in the process.

There were one or two people who said they should not be able to open on account of the fact that they were junk-food pushers, but their views were as irrelevant and wrong as Anon 13:56s.

If it goes on the market properly and a buyer is not found within a year, then I'd be happy for this decision to be revisited. But I am confident that by then Domino's will be happily trading from another local site.

"Hang on, is this whole argument based on the assumption a fancy restaurant is going to appear out of the blue during this tough time?!"

Restaurant, yes. If you'd read the discussions properly from the start, you wouldn't have to be asking the question now.

But not a fancy restaurant necessarily, no. Just somewhere where people can sit, meet, congregate - a place that might encourage people to go for a drink nearby beforehand or afterwards.

"Do you even know how many restaurants a closing every year..."

Are you saying that no new restaurants will open now or in the future? In the UK? London? Or is Honor Oak uniquely cursed?

I'm sure you can share the stats with us. I'd refer you to Brockley's Rock, a restaurant / takeaway that opened in Brockley earlier this year and appears to be doing rather well. Or I could point you to the queues outside the Orchard and the Brockley Mess, the fact that Toads Mouth has found a buyer, etc, etc. Perhaps the stats say that these places are a figment of my imagination.

Well why not a Nando's? Another big chain pushing food of questionable nutritional value, but one that draws people in to the high street rather than serving them with a fleet of scooters, delivering to their homes.

You can keep trying to make it about posh people oppressing the common man, but no matter how hard you try, it still isn't.

invwerted pyramid of piffle!Snobbery? Of course not, that is just a label for those looking for one.It's about appropriate usage of building stupid.A take away pizza business can,and does,set up just fine in a normal High St shop.

Perhaps it might be a good idea to ask BC regulars what kind of restaurant they would like to see going into the Old Bank site and how much they would be prepared to pay for a three course meal with a bottle of house wine in a good local?

Hi everyone, Ben here one more time. I've just had a chance to read back through the actual points people have made and I realise now that my posts above were complete rubbish. It's nothing to do with house prices and actually a very sensible discussion about how to create a successful high street in Honor Oak, that works for everyone, rich and poor.